South Africa is a popular travel destination for a number of reasons. Since we went there this (European) summer (i.e. SA winter), we are starting to understand why. I think it is the combination of wildlife (safari), stunning landscapes, culture (from wood carvings to braai (= SA barbecue)), history (both ancient and recent) and delicious …
Cape Town (and its surroundings) in three days and a 1000 impressions.
After more than 24 hours of traveling between airports (Brussels-Madrid-Johannesburg-Cape Town), we finally arrived at CPT (Cape Town International Airport) around 5PM. Being August, thus South-African winter, the sun was already setting when we set off with our rental car towards our hostel in Cape Town’s Green Point. There were a number of hindrances that …
Afterlife in Ancient Egypt
Our last excursion took us to see a glimpse of afterlife in Ancient Egypt. We first met with the Colossi of Memnon, two gigantic statues (each 18 m high), who used to serve as guards to the famous temple of Amenhotep. This temple is now completely destroyed, and the colossi themselves have been heavily damaged. …
Kom Ombo – my favourite temple in Egypt
After our stopover in Aswan it was time to discover some more ancient Egyptian temples. First on our list was the small temple of Kom Ombo, which was my favourite temple by far. This temple is dedicated to two gods, which was rare: Horus and Sobek, the crocodile god. It was built during the Greco …
Aswan
A traditional felouka sailing into the sunset. Time to pick up our blog series about Egypt again. After sailing away from the temple of Edfu, we reached our halfway point: Aswan. For most of us this meant a little break from all of the temples, although the highlight excursion from Aswan is a visit to …
Edfu temple
Detail of the statue of Horus on the inner courtyard. The second temple we visited on our trip was Edfu temple. The cruise ship brought us to our new destination over night, which I found a very comfortable way of traveling. It’s not a cruise ship like the big oceanic hotels you see cruising the …
The temples of Luxor and Karnak
A young, happy me in the temple complex of Karnak. You can see the Hypostyle hall in the back (left). Back in 1999 I was in my senior year of high school. We could choose our senior trip ourselves. It had to be something educational, and the whole class needed to attend the trip. After some brainstorming, …
Febe’s photography frenzy in the Majorelle gardens
As promised a few days ago, this post is here only to show you the photographs Febe (our 3-year old daughter) has taken with our Canon Powershot in the Majorelle Garden in Marrakesh (Morocco). We were both taking photographs (I use a Canon 1100-D Rebel, Annick uses her Sony Ericsson Xperia mostly), and Febe wanted …
Our first day in Morocco
For our 5th wedding anniversary we wanted to go a little further away. Criteria: it had to be warm. Our April trip in Denmark last year (2013), though very beautiful, was freezing cold… After some searching, we found a great package deal in Marrakech and we were off to Morocco! It was the first trip …
Antarctica (1): getting there
“Here I am, at the Big Blue Backpackers Hotel, in my little room. Alone. But it’s quiet here and I’m relieved: the journey went smoothly except for the 1-hour customs delay at Cape Town International. Because I’m going to the South Pole for 2.5 months, I cannot afford to loose any luggage at this time!” …